Blackfoot couple expecting conjoined twin girls
Chelsea and Nick Torres are moving to Texas for medical reasons after learning they are expecting conjoined twin girls.
“He’s [the doctor] like, ‘OK, well, you’re probably gonna miscarry, because your twins are conjoined.’ I didn’t even know I was having twins. I just know there’s a baby in there. I didn’t exactly know what was going on,” said Chelsea Torres.
“It was a big shock at first,” Nick Torres added. “I mean, we went from having one baby, to two babies stuck together all in the same day.”
With this news at eight weeks pregnant, Chelsea and Nick Torres had a lot to think about.
“Well, they gave us the option to terminate. I’m not big on termination. Never have been. It’s just preference. I’ve never wanted to do. Thought about it don’t get us wrong. They told us we had a 20 percent chance [of survivial] — and that was even that was kind of stretching it. I didn’t want to get big, I didn’t want to see the stretch marks, I didn’t want to feel them one day and not the next. I waited three days, and the decision wasn’t sticking so I said, ‘OK, I have to keep them,” said Chelsea.
They named the girls Callie and Carter. The twins are joined at the chest and share a bladder, but do not share a stomach or a heart.
“We want to separate them and kind of give them a good life. Usually, it’s the heart that kind of makes or breaks it. It’s 100 percent fatal if they share a heart, but we see their heart all the time. It has separate beats, it has a separation in between them,” said Chelsea.
Now 14 weeks along, the growing family is doing their best to look at the bright side. Chelsea stopped going to school a year before graduating, and Nick is keeping his family afloat while working at the Family Dollar before their big move.
“I’m trying,” Chelsea said tearfully, “I’m trying really hard to do the right thing — and I’m not sure if this is the right thing. I tell them every night that I love them. I’m just really trying, and I hope they understand that. They try every day to stay alive, so I give them the same love back.”
Callie and Carter are due Feb. 21, 2017, but doctors in Texas are waiting for more tests before setting a date for the C-section. Nick and Chelsea Torres, and their young boy Jaysin, are having a yard sale Saturday at 9 a.m. at their home, 610 South Cleveland Street in Blackfoot.
They also have a GoFundMe page titled,”Beating the Odds with Callie and Carter.” Another fundraiser will be on Oct.1 at 5 p.m. at the Elks Lodge.
https://m.facebook.com/Beating-the-Odds-with-Callie-and-Carter-1817195835178531/
